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With over 170+ Instagram submissions this year (most of them being videos), I’m shocked at how much I’m enjoying creating content for Instagram. I used to lump it together with “Twitter” as things I don’t like. I still don’t like Twitter, but turns out, Instagram is pretty cool. Even though I’m only allowed 15-second videos, it’s been interesting how that limitation has been pushing my creativity in new ways. Now that I’m getting better at video editing, what I do is I record stuff with my phone or dSLR and transfer the files to my computer, edit it using Sony Vegas, add music, splice/modify clips and whip them up together. I save them on my phone through dropbox and then upload them to Instagram.

It’s kind of useful for teaching very small things or showing demonstrations or making neat “advertisements” or “announcements” for my full yoga videos. Some things are so simple they don’t require a 3 minute YouTube video, but are perfect for instagram.

Order goes from newer to older in each separate category. I will attempt to organize this all better in the future hopefully.

1. Got a tight neck or stiff upper back? These shoulder rolls are an excellent mobility drill to simultaneously strengthen and loosen the musculature around the upper back. They effectively strengthen weak links and balance out excessive tension in the area.

2. The shoulder blades float over your ribs/upperback and the ability to move them and control them in relation to your ribs is called scapulothoracic control. Mobility entails not only flexibility and strength but also CONTROL. Most people don’t have good control in this regard but practicing these progressions will improve it greatly.

3. This is a very visceral (internal) experience, as you don’t have eyes in the back of your head to see your shoulder blades, so you have to feel it out. This increased awareness allows you to manipulate the scapulae in ways that are very important for bodyweight exercises that call for specific scapular positioning.

4. They feel really good, especially in downward dog.

Progressions (do in both directions)

Shoulder rolls while standing/sitting

Shoulder rolls in incline plank (not shown in video)*

Shoulder rolls on hands/knees

Shoulder rolls in plank (not shown)

Shoulder rolls in downward facing dog (advanced)

Shoulder rolls in handstand (not shown)

* If you cannot do these shoulder rolls on hands and knees without bending your elbows, or if it’s simply too confusing and you can’t get the motion right, then try the shoulder rolls in incline plank (hands elevated on a counter). When you master it there, then you will find yourself better able to doing it on hands and knees.

These prone shoulder/scapular rolls make a great prerequisite before doing scapular rolls while hanging from a pull up bar which takes more strength and the force vectors are different cause gravity is in a different position. Anyway, hope you liked it!

Update: Advanced Shoulder Rolls

These advanced variations effectively increase the load/intensity which help to increase your shoulder shoulder strength, stability and mobility. The one arm variations can be quite helpful for strengthening up a weaker side (or at least discovering that one side is weaker). These are purely bodyweight exercises that don’t require any equipment. Throw them in your warm-up or cool down or anytime you feel like loosening up and feeling good.

This is my first yoga video. I’ve been practicing yoga regularly since 2008, but more vigorously since 2011 and it is one of my favorite loves. This video took lots of preparation ahead of time in multiple ways: mentally, physically and logistically.

For years, each time I left a yoga class I quickly jotted down one or two things I really liked from the class. Over the years I had collected a ton of moves that I personally enjoyed greatly. Then, earlier this year I was doing my yoga teacher training with Dan Ward and he inspired me to make use of my notes. So, this video is a culmination of all the things I find scrumptious, but organized into a logical sequence and a lot of is geared toward just helping you feel GREAT, improve your general flexibility and posture. So, do you wanna do 30 minutes of yoga? Here it is! 😀

Q: What skill level is this aimed towards?

A: I made it such that people with minimal yoga experience will be able to do this. I avoided including potentially dangerous positions such as shoulderstand. It is mostly aimed at improving posture, general flexibility and helping you to feel good. It should feel pretty scrumptious regardless of skill level. Even if you have a lot of experience with yoga, the sequencing should hopefully feel pretty fresh.

Q: That view – is that a real background?

A: Yes. We had to wake up real early to make this happen. More info on the making of this video is below.

Click here to learn why I learned a ton from making this video...

Collaboration: This wasn’t a typical project where I could just setup a tripod and shoot. I needed help from multiple people because I wanted multiple camera angles. My brother and girlfriend at the time volunteered to be my camera-operators. I borrowed a couple cameras from friends as well. Thank you all.

Setting: This is a location that I’ve been going to since I was a teenager and there have been many hot summer evenings where we stayed overnight to watch sunrise here.

Weather: I had a vision to shoot this weather with a particular weather pattern: I wanted the marine layer to penetrate into the valleys from the coast overnight and be just thick enough so that it would look like I am above the clouds. Too thick and I will be engulfed in fog and it will look bad. (I did happen to get engulfed for a portion of the video, as you will see, but luckily it was temporary.) The fog that happens is a result of this weather phenomena in california that happens only at certain days and only between May and June typically, and lasts only for a couple hours between the early morning hours.

Timing: I had to check the weather several days ahead of time and read the weather discussions in great detail to know whether the marine layer was going to be just right. Then I had to ask my friend if they could make it then. And by “then” I mean… we had to wake up at 3am… drive to the spot… then hike 30 minutes. Then do the damn thing and wrap it up before sunrise, which was about 540am… which means I had a very small window of time during magic hour (aka golden hour). (there were 2 days i woke up at 3am and scouted the location and the marine layer was too thick and i had to reschedule)

Planning: Since I only had a small window of time during magic hour (one hour before sunrise) before the fog lifted, I had to be ready and I couldn’t waste my helpers time either. So I had planned the entire sequence ahead of time so I could just do the whole flow during magic hour (that special time just before sunrise).

Editing: This was the first time I recorded a video with multiple cameras rolling at once. I had to learn how to edit a multi-camera project and I learned how to use Sony Vegas to do this. I had to sync up all the video clips and then figure out how to choose which cameras had the best shot at the time.

Voice: Normally, I’m used to just talking and demonstrating at the same time. But I had to do a voice over for this, so after the video clips were all lined up, I had to just start talking over it, transcribe it, then improve my transcript and make it really great. I had to record in a quiet environment with a good mic. (I had to coddle poor medax to stop her from snoring many times.)

Feedback: After I got my first draft done, I asked friends for feedback. I ended up having to add music which made it sound much more professional. Then I ended up adding cross fades to all the transitions because before they were hard cuts and that wasn’t flowing with the rest of the scenery and vibe. I even added a bird sound track for the first few minutes to make it nice. All in all, this was 6 months of learning from start. Not bad for my first big video project and being a one-man production studio doing all this on the side as a hobby, right? I hope so.

In the video above, I tell you how to do push ups with proper form and how to build up to doing them on the floor.

Frequently Asked Questions

Why is it bad to flare the elbows out?

If the elbows are out (i.e., abducted 90-degrees from your body) it puts unnecessary strain on the elbow tendons (a valgus strain) and reduces the amount of subacromial space in the shoulder joint which can lead to impingement.

But that’s not all, it’s simply not as efficient of a position to generate strength from and doesn’t carry over to the more difficult pushing progressions. For example, if you’re ever going to do crow pose or handstand push ups or dips, you’re going to need to keep the elbows from flaring out, so you might as well be doing pushups in a way that transfers better to those exercises.

Why do I have to keep the hips tucked?

You will notice that I emphasize posterior pelvic tilt, which is the same as the hollow body position, if you’re familiar with that term. If you arch your lower back in plank or the push up, it will put a lot of pressure on your lower back and hurt it. I talk about the importance of this positioning in my comprehensive handstand tutorial.

Why do I have to protract my shoulder blades at the top? What’s wrong with winging?

Doing a push up and NOT protracting the shoulder may result in winging and that is a sign of scapular instability and possible weakness of the serratus anterior (“the boxers muscle”).

You’re also cheating out on the full range of motion available to the push up exercise. You should lower all the way down and push back up until your elbows are straight and then spread the shoulder blades apart. That’s full ROM.

I took a video of myself and I see I am winging, how do I fix this?

My video on scapular shrugs may help you focus on strengthening the serratus anterior and other structures.

I still don’t get how to protract the shoulder blades. What’s a good cue to make sure I’m doing it?

Protraction cue: Go into plank or plank on your knees and try to touch the front of your shoulders together. That should do the trick.

Why is it a good idea to turn the hands out slightly?

Turning the hands out slightly not only helps ensure the proper motor pattern to help your elbows from flaring out, but it also reduces the amount of pressure in your wrists. The further forward you have to lean, the more stress will be put on your wrists. This is especially important when you’re going through pseudo planche push ups.

Horse stance is short for “horse-riding stance” and it’s basically a really wide squat. Here’s a follow along video I made to motivate you to limber up and hold horse stance together with me!

Why are we holding it?

In Stretching Scientifically and Flexibility Express, Thomas Kurz uses the horse-stance as the main tool for achieving the straddle splits.

In martial arts, they may hold it at only a fixed width, but for our purpose of getting the splits, we gradually widen the stance. (Think of it as a progression: Wide Squats that keep widening toward Middle Splits)

By maintaining this position, you will develop both strength and flexibility in your thighs, hips and lower back. As we get more comfortable holding it at a certain width and depth, we widen the stance gradually over time.

The best part of this “Squats to Splits” progression is that many people are familiar with the squat and this builds strength at the same time (not just passive flexibility). Weakness of the adductors is the main obstacle to doing straddle splits and the horse stance will strengthen those muscles tremendously so you could hold your entire bodyweight up in this position.

Form for the horse stance:

Breathing: At all stages, no matter how low, high, wide, narrow your stance, you must do calm, deep breathing with your belly.

How deep should I squat? When should I go wider?

In the beginning, don’t worry about trying to go as deep as possible. Just work on a decent horse stance, sometimes dropping lower, sometimes going higher. When you could find that you could maintain your thighs parallel to the ground comfortably, then you could slightly widen your stance and with practice, build yourself up to going deeper again.

Programming

The following is to give you choices. You don’t always have to hold the horse stance statically. You could squat for reps, do them weighted, and so on. If you don’t know what to choose, then just start with the first option below to keep things simple.

I have no horse but I must ride

Four days a week or more, accumulate 5 mins total time in horse stance in one session.

Suggested work to rest ratio 1 : 1.5 (e.g., 30sec hold, 45sec rest)

If you choose to do it more often than 4x/week, great, but if you need a rest day, take it.

AM: Pre-breakfast, do 40 – 50 reps of horse stance squats, start slow and work deeper as you loosen up.

PM: Every leg day do 3 – 5 sets of weighted horse stance squats, 10 reps per set hold last rep for 10s seconds. Use a weight that allows you go deeper in the squats, 10-20kg should be sufficient for most.

PM: Everyday using your maximum-width horse stance accumulate 6 mins total time in horse stance in one session. Suggested work to rest ratio 1 : 1.5

Post session for all levels:

Spend 3 – 5 mins rolling your piriformis and glutes with a ball and then stretching it, DO NOT SKIP THIS.

Get a lacrosse ball or tennis ball or foam roller and roll your ass over it like this.

For this month of February, I am hosting a horse stance motivational month on reddit’s /r/flexibility. The first main post is here. If you’re a redditor, feel free to join us! Either way, I hope you enjoy your strength and flexibility gains through this deceptively simple exercise!

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